‘WE HAD MORE WORK TO DO’: Marquette persevered en route to third place in state

Perseverance carries Marquette to third

Pete Hayes, phayes@civitasmedia.com

Published
4:00 pm CDT, Sunday, May 29, 2016

Marquette Catholic goalkeeper Lauren Fischer makes a diving save against Wheaton Academy in Friday’s Class 1A state semifinal game at North Central College in Naperville. Fischer, a sophomore, is one of many key players that will be back for the Explorers in 2017. less

Marquette Catholic goalkeeper Lauren Fischer makes a diving save against Wheaton Academy in Friday’s Class 1A state semifinal game at North Central College in Naperville. Fischer, a sophomore, is one of many ... more

Photo: Sean King | For The Telegraph

Photo: Sean King | For The Telegraph

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Marquette Catholic goalkeeper Lauren Fischer makes a diving save against Wheaton Academy in Friday’s Class 1A state semifinal game at North Central College in Naperville. Fischer, a sophomore, is one of many key players that will be back for the Explorers in 2017. less

Marquette Catholic goalkeeper Lauren Fischer makes a diving save against Wheaton Academy in Friday’s Class 1A state semifinal game at North Central College in Naperville. Fischer, a sophomore, is one of many ... more

Photo: Sean King | For The Telegraph

‘WE HAD MORE WORK TO DO’: Marquette persevered en route to third place in state

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You’ll have to forgive Steve Mitchell if he puts off discussion of next season’s prospects for at least a couple days. He needs a little time to absorb what just just transpired the last eight weeks or so.

He’s exhausted - and so are his Marquette Catholic High girls soccer players.

“It was a weird season,” said Mitchell Saturday night as he reflected on his team’s third-place finish at the IHSA Class 1A Girls State Soccer Tournament. “First, we couldn’t buy a win, then we had trouble scoring, then we had injuries.

“The first time we had the whole team back was when we got to the regional championship game.”

The Explorers left it all on the field in Saturday’s 4-2 victory over Williamsville in a third-place match at North Central College in Naperville. Their scorers scored, their defenders defended and their trophy case back at MCHS will get another big trophy as a result.

“Every coach and his players want to win the state championship,” Mitchell said. “We didn’t quite get that far, but we told the girls before this game to go out, play hard, show what they had learned and to have fun.”

That proved to be the best recipe for which Marquette could have hoped. Even though they spotted Williamsville’s high-scoring Bullets a 1-0 lead in the first half, the Explorers came back - with a vengeance.

The Explorers came into the tournament with the least-impressive won-loss record of the four teams. But Mitchell and the Marquette fans, assistant coaches and players all knew the true story. A more-than-challenging schedule may have put some dents in the record. But in the long run, the games against some of the area’s best Class 3A and 2A teams, evidently had the desired effect on Mitchell’s team.

“They made us tougher,” Mitchell said. “I try to get as many of those tougher teams on the schedule as possible. In the long run, it can only make a team stronger - as long as the players take something away from those games.”

Call it a method to Mitchell’s madness.

Marquette was 2-4-1 before April hit. The Explorers slowly but surely fought their way back to respectability and started making hay in April, going 7-4-2. Along the way, they played teams the likes of Edwardsville (a 2-1 loss), Normal University High (4-2 win), East Moline (1-1 tie) and defending 1A state champion Rochester (a 4-0 loss).

“We didn’t back off from a challenge,” Mitchell said. “That’s one thing about this team - they fought through a lot this season, but they ended up as one of the top four teams in the state and finished third at the state tournament.”

Then there were those injuries.

Lauren Schmickley went down early in the season and wasn’t able to play until the playoffs were under way. Then there were players the likes of Copeland and Ketoura Ngwa on an injured list a mile long that seemed to have a life of its own.

“I thought we were playing pretty well at the end of the season,” Mitchell said. “But we couldn’t buy a goal.”

They evidently found a way to fill that shopping need.

The weirdest part of a weird season may well have been a string of overtime penalty kick victories en route to advancing to the state tournament.

Three consecutive games, the Explorers were within an eyelash - or a missed PK - of seeing their season end short of the goal of making it back to the state final four.

And three consecutive times, Marquette found a way back from the ledge.

“This team found ways to survive,’ Mitchell said. “Every game was tougher than the last one, but they survived.”

Until Friday, that is, when eventual state champion Wheaton Academy blanked Marquette 3-0 in a semifinal.

“Our girls could have thrown in the towel at that point,’ Mitchell said. “They wanted to win state so badly.”

Indeed. But once that dream was gone following Friday’s defeat, they stepped up instead of stepping down.

“We had girls who gave us 100 percent, even when it looked like it might be hopeless and we might not get to get back to state.”

False alarm. The Explorers got contributions from up and down their lineup en route to the state semifinals.

As for those prospects for next season, Mitchell admitted they look good. “We lose a few players, and some of them are key players,” he said. “But that’s the way it is in school sports. You’re gonna eventually have to tell them goodbye. But we have an extremely strong core group returning.”

Among those returning are top scorer Copeland, top defender Ngwa and goalie Lauren Fischer.

While they didn’t get their chance to play for the state championship, Mitchell said his team’s appearance at the state tournament was testament to its hard work.

“There aren’t very many teams than can say they made it to state once, let alone two or three times.

“Not very many players get a chance like this group had,” Mitchell said. “We weren’t content to just get to state. We had more work to.”